The Hidden Ones:Leopard's Lament
by Golden Lioness-Goldie
Summary: ON HIATUS! MASSIVE REWRITE IN PROGRESS!
1. A Blind Escape

**A/N: I know, I know, I shouldn't be doing three stories at once, but I have major writers block with my other two and this plot bunny, related to my other two but also as far off as any story will ever be from them, will not stop eating my radishes! If I don't release it soon, it'll move on to my lettuce! This is Akatsuki/Deidara-centric, and the meaning of my OC's name is Starry New Moon. **

**

* * *

**

_Ever since I first opened my eyes, I have been blind. I have been told that my eyes are a foggy green, with barely visible pupils. I wouldn't know. I can't see. My parents treat me like I'm a fragile glass doll, and every time I say I want to become a shinobi, I get a softly patted head and a "You are worn out already, I'll lead you back to bed." I am sick of it. I will find my way to the Star Chamber, and I will crawl on my knees in the dirt if I have to!_

That was the last diary entry I ever thought of. I couldn't see to write without help, so it wasn't hard to conceal it from my overbearing, lazy noble civilians of parents and superior pig of a kid brother. My existence was not hidden from the rest of the village, Hidden Star, but well-known, creating pity, and thus power, for my parents. I don't even remember their names now. I guess my life has changed so drastically since then that I have blocked out all those memories. At the age of ten, I made up my mind to spend my nights training in the secret village building that held the star that had fallen into our village many years ago. I trained in secret for five more years, discovering along the way that the medical problems that affected almost everyone who trained with the star had no hold over me. If anything, the star made me stronger. Then, on the eve of my sixteenth birthday, I went to train with the star, but was stopped up short as pain seared through my blind eyes like fire. I saw, _saw_, the village. I saw myself. I saw colors, somehow knowing their names. I had long chestnut-colored hair braided carefully down my back, straggling bits of hair falling over my eyes. I was years older. Though I didn't move the whole time, the _me_ I saw ran, and my newfound vision followed her path. I saw myself crossing the plaza between the building that was an entrance to the star's chamber. As I watched, this phantom me entered the building. She faded, along with the rest of my vision, as she stepped through the doorway. Fresh pain split my skull, and a voice echoed inside my head. Terrible, rough, yet silky, and somehow female. It spoke to me, growling inside the back of my head. _**"****You have reached the Waking Year, Hoshiko Sorano. I can now speak to you, after all these years."**_

I felt as though a brick wall was slowly being broken down inside me, and I slowly became aware of something in my head. I tremblingly asked inside my head, "_Wh-who are you? What are you? What's going on he-" _I was stopped by the creature's force.

_**"I am known as the Seer, Yogensha. I am a jaguar demoness who was sealed inside you by my younger sister, Kin, the Lioness of Balance. I am the reason for your blindness, for as I am also blind from birth, you are inextricably linked to me. However, this training with the so-called star has made you strong enough to use my special power. We can see the future, Hoshiko. What you just saw was you, three years and a day into the future. The "Star" is actually a chunk of Great Mother Moon, and will not injure you. It can tell that you are family. I can teach you how, through the star, to write, and how to control your taijutsu. When you turn eighteen, I shall show you how to create pure Sight. I will help you gain working eyes. I will teach you to read and do essential mathematics. Then, you must take a village headband. After that, we cannot yet see how it will turn out."**_

I had listened, spellbound, my feet frozen to the wood floor of the Star Chamber, but now I shook myself out of it. For some reason, I trusted this jaguar implicitly. I asked, _"How long will it take to learn all this?"_

Yogensha, as I would come to call her, chuckled. _**"Not long. Your training will be complete before you are twenty."**_

I nodded, satisfied. Yogensha's presence was no longer painful, so I figured I would fight to the best of my ability to make the demon proud. As I turned toward the star, I heard Yogensha say, _**"Remember, Hoshiko. Blindness is not a curse, but a gift beyond the understanding of the common man."**_

This one sentence became the philosophy I live by to this day. However, exactly three years later, the night before I turned nineteen, all hell began to break loose.

* * *

Last year, I learned to create sight. It turned my eyes an electric purple, and my pupils were not round, but had ponts, making them appear as black stars in a purple sky. The first time I created this sight, I was so shocked by even the small amount of color I saw that I nearly collapsed. I got used to it over time, and I even became able to control my chakra to such an extent that I never even noticed the drain. I also developed, with this sight, my own special form of art. I would take a scroll and paint an animal on it, usually in purple, the color my chakra turned. Then, using Seer's chakra and mine in combination, I would bring the painting to life as a three-dimensional being. I could create tracker birds, spy mice, even foxes that could find food. Any and all of these could easily be made to explode. They would, when deactivated, become tiny drops of paint and return to the bottle, flying back fast enough to pass through wood. I told Seer that I thought art was only art when it was alive, and an explosion made even its death beautiful. My parents remained blissfully clueless, and the kid brother began to succumb to the Star's disease. I didn't actively wish for him to die, so I convinced Star, the consciousness that lived in the moon rock, to not injure him anymore. Still, he would forever be a weaker ninja than I. However, I didn't know this until after my world flipped around, turned upside-down and smashed against a rock. I was supposed to go and take a village headband that night. But, when I tried to get out out of the house, I was caught. That's where I am now.

* * *

I hadn't yet activated my eyes, but I could tell that a big, burly ninja guard was in front of me. Thanks to my intense training, I could tell that it was Momo, the dumbest yet strongest guard in the house. He was advancing on me now, saying, "Little Mistress, why are you up? Little Mistress is up past her bedtime."

I thought over what I was going to do. Yogensha was silent, letting me decide. I took the least painful and most permanent course of action, quickly activating my sight and chopping the back of Momo's neck with the side of my hand. As the big man fell unconscious, I carefully caught him and lowered him to the ground. I then proceeded to wipe his memory with another ability gleaned from Yogensha. As I looked around, I decided I would take the window when an alarm went off, triggered by a guard going unconscious. I barely managed to shut the window as guards rushed into the hall. I flitted across the village, into the home of the Hoshikage, and throughout the halls of his home to the room in which headbands were kept. I picked up one, a black-cloth styled headband with the star shape etched into it, and carefully tied it around my head. Yogensha hissed inside my head. _**"Hoshiko, it is midnight. You are now nineteen years old, and you are about to begin the sequence of events you saw that very first night."**_

I nodded and began to braid my mid-back length hair, which was of a chestnut color. I fastened it with a red strip of leather I had kept in my paint pouch and walked back to the plaza. Then, just like in the first and only vision I ever saw, I ran across the plaza into the Star Chamber with straggling bits of hair falling over my eyes. I was wearing a(stolen) uniform that I had tailored in my room after and before I went to train. I knelt in front of the star and asked, "Please, help me to do what is right for me."

No response came. As I knelt there, pain, like the first vision, seared through my head. I saw a young man...Blond hair, half ponytailed, eye colored a striking sapphire blue, slightly lined with thick black lashes. He couldn't be more than a year older. I saw the cloak he wore... The headband... His cloak was black, with a high collar and a red cloud splashed right across his chest area, his headband holding a scratched symbol for Iwagakure. He had one bang in front of his left eye. The vision changed. The same man stretched his hand out towards me, saying something. I didn't really know what it meant as it faded, and I opened my eyes to see myself surrounded by half the village, every last shinobi. The Hoshikage stood in front of my kneeling form. I looked up through my bangs at him. He glared at me, saying, "Did you try to steal the star? Answer me, you char-"

I stood to my full height, and was instantly recognized as the Sorano's girl child, albeit in ninja gear with a headband and striking purple eyes. The Hoshikage's eyes widened, and he hesitantly took a step forward. "Hoshiko? Is that...you?"

I nodded tersely. "Yes, my lord. I have been secretly training with the star for over eight years. I wished to become a ninja, and in doing so, discovered how to create pure sight. I may be at jonin level by now, my lord. Will you accept me as a ninja?"

The man looked shocked. "What the-!? Young lady, has some fever made you delusional? You are too fragile for such work!"

My mouth thinned as I listened to Yogensha's description of a vision she had just seen without me. I decided that if that was what it would take to meet the mysterious man, I would do it. I turned the full force of my eyes on the Hoshikage, who cringed. My eyes, bright when activated during the day, glowed at night, making them seem far larger than usual. "Very well. If that is how you think, then I see no reason to pursue this."

He looked relieved for a moment, until I said something that bubbled up from knowledge and anger. "Instead, I suppose I can destroy this building before I abandon it."

Every person who stood around me gasped, and some said to each other, "She can't do that-she can't!"

I moved in a flash of purple light, drawing out a prepared scroll containing a painted owl. I whipped it open and made a one-handed sign. The scroll _boofed_ into thick white smoke that was speedily blown away by the owl's wings. I told it, "Go to the center of the mansion, then grow and implode."

The owl disappeared. One of my swiftest creations, it never made even the slightest sound. I took out several kunai and shuriken, hurling them at the villagers in my path. They either scattered or were taken down by the barrage of weapons. I picked up each one as I whipped past, bolting headlong out of the village and into forest border, aimed for Grass country. I heard a satisfying KABLAMMMM!!!!!!!! My explosive owl worked. I quickly made the special hand sign for _bird. _Purple chakra enveloped me for a moment, and then I lifted off into the night air with transparent wings, Yogensha cheering me in my head, and a thick roiling column of black smoke pouring into the air from the exploded mansion. I flew away into the night, and I only stopped once. I dropped to the ground in a clearing, taking off the headband. I carefully laid it on a flat rock. I had no second thoughts as I allowed my index finger to be covered in a light purple glow. In a single swift movement, I sliced the front of the headband open horizontally across the star. I was officially a missing ninja, the first from Hidden Star.

* * *

I had flown on for another thirteen miles, eventually stopping on the outskirts of a little town that was barely more than an inn and a general store. I hid my headband and used a henge to give myself chocolate-colored eyes. I walked into the inn and ordered a room for the one night. The small man at the counter gave me one on the upper floor, but I got there and wasn't too pleased. The room itself was nice, as small inn rooms go, but it had a huge window. As any good shinobi knows, windows are a huge security risk. However, I decided to deal with it. What I looked for in a room was ground-floor, three-foot thick cement walls, and heavy-duty steel door with deadbolts on the inside only. Still, a room like that is almost impossible to find, and even if I had found one, the relatively meager funds I had stolen from the safe back in Hidden Star wouldn't come close to paying for half of it. I decided that I would just fall asleep and move on early. I decided that I would go out and buy a bedroll and some essential supplies from the town's general store. I found everything I needed at a very good price and made my way back to the inn with enough money remaining for the next month. As my once again blind eyes closed, the image of the blond man floated in my mind and I found myself wondering what was on his left eye under the bang. I drifted to sleep thinking about Hidden Star, and just before my eyes closed, I resolved to steal a bingo book the first chance I had.

* * *

The next morning, I was awakened by the smell of someone baking bread, probably at the small shop across the street. I sat up and quickly activated my sight jutsu. As I blinked my eyes to rid them of the sleep sand, Yogensha greeted me with her customary mentally shouted _**"And WHY are you still sitting in bed when you could be downstairs by now?"**_

I yelped and tumbled out of bed onto the floor, scrabbling for my clothing and weapons. I found them, but I was in such a hurry that I had my black pants halfway onto my head before I corrected myself. As Yogensha laughed, I got my clothes on the right way and performed the henge to change my eye color. I packed my stuff, which consisted of a change of clothes, three pairs of clean underpants and my new bedroll into my brand-spanking-new backpack, then grabbed the room key and walked out of the room. I dropped the key onto the front desk and smiled at the clerk. As I paid my bill, I asked the clerk, a young man, "Do you know of anyone looking to hire a traveling ninja?"

The boy looked shocked for a moment, then nodded. "I heard that some businessman by name of Atsushi was looking for a ninja, but I think he was gonna submit applicants to a test before he gave them the job."

I nodded. I could handle that. "Atsushi, quite the appropriate name for an industrious man. Do you know where he is?"

The boy nodded again. "He's head of a factory town about twenty miles northeast."

I smiled again. "Thanks. Here, this is for your trouble." I placed an extra thirty ryu on the desk and left without a backwards glance. The bright sunlight did not bother me as I went outside. I had found about a month prior to my defection from Star that I could twist my vision to see in different lights or to see lies versus truths. However, it did take more chakra up, so I would adjust my vision and slowly lessen the chakra flow so that my eyes adjusted to the light. I couldn't possibly imagine that I would be able to get a good, steady source of pay, so I bought as much long-lasting traveler's bread as I could carry without adding too much to my load, then a loaf of the sweet, savory bread that was so light and fluffy it melted in my mouth. I left the tiny town going north, then made a slight adjustment east and began to run.

* * *

I had been running for an average of three to four hours when I entered a town far larger than the first, and exponentially louder. I watched the children running thruogh the streets and decided that this was about as safe a town as you could get. These children were happy, laughing and screaming with joy. Heck, for all I knew, they could be able to run around at night without fear of crime. I shook the children off my mind as I walked to the largest non-factory building in sight. I saw a few men lingering by the door. None were shinobi, that was clear. I released the henge, allowing my eyes to show what my sight jutsu made them look like. I approached one of the men. "Excuse me, I'm here about the job offered by Atsushi?"

The man, who was rather bullish, leered at me. "Sure, sweetheart. Just through this door here."

As I walked past him, his hand made a grab for my backside. I deftly caught his hand and swiftly snapped his wrist while crushing his fingers. Ignoring his agonized scream, I proceeded calmly through the door. In the dark, spacious office, I was greeted by a middle-aged man with graying cropped hair and horn-rimmed glasses, who was sitting behind the desk. He looked up from the papers in his hand and said, "Yes?"

"I'm here about the job for a traveling ninja." I got right to the point. Atsushi sat up a little straighter. He had some latent chakra, so he was probably a shinobi, at least a former one. He probably reached chunin before he stopped. He looked at the headband I was wearing.

"You're from Hidden Star? Why is your headband scratched?"

I carefully explained with a pre-fabricated lie. "I'm on extended leave, and this is scratched through due to an accident as a genin. I never bothered to replace it, which may have been a mistake." Atsushi looked satisfied.

"What's your name?"

"Hoshiko." I had already decided against giving out my last name.

"Hoshiko...It suits you. Your eyes are very unusual. However, moving on. The job I am offering is assassination. Are you comfortable with that?"

I nodded. "As long as there's a good reason behind it and the target is not a child, I am."

Atsushi nodded. "In this case, the target is another businessman. He kidnapped my five-year-old grandson as collateral for a rather old sword I own. I want him killed and my grandson brought back. That kind of brutality over a sword is immoral."

I could do that. "I'll do it."

Atsushi looked thoughtful. "I'll have to submit you to a test. Are you good with that?"

"Of course."

"Fine. Come out this way." Atsushi stood an walked to the door behind him. I followed him out into bright sunlight.

* * *

**A/N: End of Chapter One! Whew! I already have a review for this story! This tells me that this just may be easier to write. I find that reviews somehow help me sprout new ideas. Be sure to visit my profile and answer my poll!**


	2. The Road to Akatsuki

**A/N: Chapter Two! YOSH! I, unfortunately, only own OCs that appear. I don't even own all of them. The three I don't own come into the story much later… Anyhoo, this chapter, Hoshiko will eventually meet up with Akatsuki! Credit for the first line Kisame says goes to my kid brother. Thank you JJ, your ideas give me hope that this story won't be crap!And yes, I can't hold it in any longer, I will be writing my AVATAR story. This would be the James Cameron AVATAR!  
**

**

* * *

**The bright light faded as I stepped into a small, dusty arena. There were approximately five men standing around, each no shorter than six feet. I listened to Atsushi with half an ear as he explained the rules. Basically, I was to beat all five men at once in as little time as possible, preferably without killing them. Atsushi said that each was approximately the level of a moderately strong shinobi, like I might encounter getting the boy back. I figured that it wouldn't be hard to take them out without killing them. Atsushi moved to the side and called, "Begin!"

I just stood there as all the men came rushing towards me. I allowed them to get within ten feet of me, then made the _bird _hand symbol.

"Secret Star Art: Mysterious Peacock Method!"

Tails like a peacock's sprouted behind me, made of purple chakra. I used my training to wrap the five men up, hold them above the ground, then use the sixth remaining tail to create the head of a beast, its huge maw hovering over the mens' heads. I began to laugh at the shocked look on their faces, watching them stare in terror at me like I was a terrible monster. Atsushi, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, said, "W-we have our, uh, winner!"

I smirked and gently let the men onto the ground. "How long?" I questioned.

Atsushi coughed, looking flustered. "Ah, ten seconds exactly", I raised my eyebrows, "Just how much training have you had?"

I scratched the side of my face. "Err...nine years at the highest levels?"

"You say that like you aren't sure."

"Well, I'm...Well, ah...I'm kind of... I'm a missing ninja from Star."

Atsushi blinked and said, "Missing...Ninja?"

I looked down. "Yeah. My parents didn't want me to become a kunoichi."

Atsushi frowned. "Well, Hoshiko, I'm... Very sorry... But I'm afraid I specified freelance ninja, not missing ninja. I hate to do this to a young girl such as yourself but I'm afraid you'll have to leave this town. I can't hire someone with a crime such as desertion on their slate."

I couldn't believe it. I contained that disbelief, however. Instead, I decided to get away before he brought out some crapload of samurai. My chakra was not going to act as a shield against a sword. "I-i...Fine!"

"What?"

"Fine! I'll leave you here!" I began weaving handsigns, and wings appeared on my back. "I will make you regret that you _ever_ decided you would crumple me up and put me in a box!"

I flew away with that, tears streaming down my face. Yogensha was about to say something, but I thought, "_Shut the hell up before you even speak, Yogensha! Leave me be!_"

Rejection from doing a job I had no issues with because I was formerly attached to a village hit me hard. I only managed to fly for the next ten minutes before I had to land. As I thumped to the ground in a puff of dust, too upset to lower myself gently, Yogensha forced me to sit on a nearby rock. She proceeded to chew me out, but not like I had done the wrong thing by telling Atsushi I was a missing-nin. Instead, she went on about how I should have killed him. **_"Stupid, stupid, stupid! You should have gutted him right then and there! Instead, you went and got all emotional, like a child. I thought I trained you better than that. You should know how to properly destroy second-rate former ninja like that by now! If I were you, I would have thrown that slimebag into a wall, then decapitated him, starting with his manhood! But nooo, little miss nobleman's daughter goes and runs away, crying as she does so!"_**

I dried my tears. She was right, of course. I should have killed him, but I cried and fled, like a four-year-old. I was silent for a long moment, glancing around me. "Yogensha," I said softly, "Where are we?"

She looked through my eyes. **_"Uhm...We appear to be...Forty miles outside the city of Jericho. It's a foreign settlement. I think the people are Americans or some such thing."_**

I mulled that over. "Is there a main road?"

In my head, I could feel her nod. **_"Yes. It is bordered by fields of scarlet roses. I would say we are on a side road leading in. Still, it's rarely used, seeing as, compared to the cart roads the city uses, for pedestrians only."_**

I remembered the vision of the blond man, the scarlet clouds he wore. I remembered the background. Red roses. Roses so red, in fact, that they were the same shade as the clouds on the cloak. Yogensha digested this information as I thought about it, then said, **_"We will go there and wait. At least until that man appears."_**

I readily agreed and set off at a run.

* * *

I had arrived in the middle of a field of roses, so red that at first I thought there had been some kind of slaughter. When I realized, due to the heavenly scent of the flowers, that there was no blood anywhere, I began to laugh and run around like a five-year-old. I rolled around in piles of roses, I braided them into my hair, I decorated myself with rose chains and even took out a little bottle and distilled some perfume from the petals of several hundred roses with my chakra. I finally ended my frivolity when I sensed a foreign chakra. Actually, I sensed three. One was very dark, and it somehow gave me the impression of the inside of a damp, dreary cave. The second made me think fish, as in smell and scales. The third, however, reminded me of wet earth, clay in fact, as well as fire. An image of the blond man came into my head. I was about to go right towards them when they, instead, turned towards me. They had seen me! I tried to fly away before Yogensha cautioned me, _**"Don't! They are the ones we are here to find."**_

So, I sat and waited. I thought about the third chakra signature. It seemed...Attractive...Like it was just the kind of chakra that attracted me. I mulled this over as the three people drew ever closer. The flowers around me waved gently in the wind, shivering slightly with the force of the footsteps. I assumed that the three were men, and slowly rose as they neared my position. I turned towards them. They were about ten feet away, and I could clearly see their features. The shortest one had dark gray hair in a long horsetail than waved slowly in the wind. He had crimson eyes with a strange design on them, and stress marks down the sides of his nose. His face was aristocratic, clearly someone of high blood. He had the dark, sad chakra.

The largest man drew my eyes up. He was nearly seven feet tall, and his skin was a light shade of blue that I would picture as belonging to a shark. He had protruding jawbones and a long pointed nose. His eyes appeared silvery and small at my first glance, but when I looked again, I could tell that they were actually a shade of gold, but his eyes were clearly sensitive to the sun, so his body created a smaller area for light to enter. The next thing I saw were what appeared to be _gills_ on his cheeks. I skipped straight from those to the humongous sword wrapped in bandages on his back. He and the smaller man were both wearing the cloaks I had seen in the vision. This guy was the owner of the slightly fishy chakra.

I gasped when the third person appeared, stepping out from behind the big man. That sun-colored hair...The single sapphire eye...The cloud across his chest... This was the man, the one I had seen. He looked at my shocked expression, the wide eyes, the open mouth and sputtering noises I was making, then fell to the ground clutching his chest. He was laughing, laughing so hard his sides were shaking. He pointed at me, still on my butt on the ground. "Y-you should see your f-f-face! It's _art, _yeah!"

The big blue guy fake-sneezed. "Sorry, Deidara, but I'm allergic to bullshit, man."

I closed my mouth, staring at the blond man. _I guess his name is Deidara. **"No shit, Sherlock."**_

Deidara slowly got to his feet, then pointed an accusing finger at the blue shark-man. "Aw, you're such a philistine, Kisame. Anything _that_ sudden is totally art. Anyway, I'm just happy I'm not a fish, unlike you, yeah."

Kisame, as I now knew him, snarled, then muttered under his breath, "No-good self-righteous _chick._"

A vein popped in Deidara's temple, and I could tell that he was just about to throw a scathing comeback at him, but the third man, who had not yet spoken, glared at Deidara, then Kisame, and said in a monotone voice, "Would you two shut up? We don't want Miss Sorano here running away on us."

I blinked as the man turned to me. He calmly spoke, ignoring a fuming Deidara and a Kisame glaring holes through his back. "My name is Uchiha Itachi. I apologize for the surprises you have encountered today...Hoshiko Sorano."

His voice snapped me out of my shocked stupor. "What do you want from me? Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"All will be explained in due time. Please, come with us."

In that one sentence, I heard "Do it or you die", so I stood and followed him, with Kisame on my left and Deidara behind me. I had found him.

* * *

I followed Itachi carefully, making sure to avoid looking at his eyes. Seer had explained them. I now knew that they were called the Sharingan, and that Itachi was undoubtedly talented at genjutsu and ninjutsu. Probably taijutsu as well, otherwise he wouldn't be an S-class criminal. I had realized that the three were all members of a shady group known as Akatsuki. They had been whispered about the last few years I had been in Star. The rumors started after Naruto Uzumaki had left, causing a young man named Sumaru to work to become Hoshikage. He was still working on it, as far as I knew.

I listened to Deidara's light baritone throwing insults at Kisame, who replied with his heavier, gravelly contrabass. He had a deeper voice than I would have expected, even for a man of his size and stature. Itachi would regularly bark at the two to shut it, or else, but they always started back up again. I got the feeling that they actually liked each other, but Deidara, at least, hated Itachi with a passion. I guess Kisame didn't really care, but I just about killed him when he said, quite loudly, "Y'know, Deidara, this girl's got a cute butt."

I turned blood red and spun around, nearly causing him to crash into me. I opened my mouth to say something scathing, but what came out instead was, "Shut it, Fishboy!"

Deidara laughed and the offending 'Fishboy' looked shocked. Deidara slapped Kisame on the shoulder, saying, "Woah, there, _Fishboy_! You might wanna watch your step there, yeah!"

He grinned. "Fine. Hey, Itachi, this makes the second smartass, next to Exploding Chick over here. Actin' like a total hellcat."

Deidara swelled with rage, but Itachi quietly said, "Blood pressure, Deidara. You don't want to accidentally prove Kisame right, do you?"

With that, we continued to move down the dusty, dry road. After about twenty more minutes, I cautiously tapped Itachi on the shoulder. "Um, Itachi?...Can you tell me what's going on now?"

Itachi sighed and began to speak without turning around. "We are taking you to the leader of our group, the Akatsuki. He wishes to see if you can become a member. Your reputation has grown in the month since you left your village."

I was shocked. _A month? It's been a month?_ Yogensha nodded inside my mind. **_"Yes. We flew for far longer than you thought. You unconsciously shifted your sight so that you could see just as well at night as in day." _**

Itachi handed me a small black book and continued speaking, saying, "Look at this book under S, and you will find your name there. Each bingo book has a jutsu on it that creates an updated version every time a new person is added."

I flipped open the bingo book, flicking the pages to S. I found Sarutobi, Asuma, a jonin from the Leaf Village, then, to my surprise, Shonobu Deidara. This was most definitely the Deidara behind me. His name literally meant Dawn Flying Faith, loosely, the faith of flying at dawn. I read his stats and smirked. Apparently he enjoyed art, especially explosions. I could live with that. He also apparently had _mouths _on his hands. He saw me looking at the picture, so I said, "Deidara, do you really have mouths on your hands?"

He gave a sort of half-smile that looked more like a smug smirk. "Of course. Wanna see?"

He waved his hand in front of my face. A tongue waggled at me from between two rows of straight white teeth. I didn't find it disgusting at all, merely morbidly fascinating. "Is that a Kekkei Genkai?"

He nodded. "No duh, of course it is, yeah."

I looked back at the bingo book and turned the page away from the slightly younger-looking Deidara in front of me. I almost dropped the book when I saw the face looking at me from the page. It was mine, and I remembered it as being taken by a man at-I inwardly hissed at this-Atsushi's office building. I read the stats written on the page. It claimed me to be an S-rank criminal, wildly sadistic and rather uncouth. I guessed from the summary that Atsushi had contacted Hidden Star for info. It gave details of my history, my jutsu and other general information. It forgot to mention that, technically, I was blind. It said my crime was-and here I nearly dropped the book-destruction of the Hoshikage's mansion, killing a hundred ninja in the process, the attempted murder of a businessman, and the assassination of the Hoshikage. I stared at the page. I had killed the Hoshikage? Had he died in the explosion? I didn't know. I wasn't intending to _murder _him, just scare him. I was snapped out of my reverie by Deidara going, "Bet half of that's a crapload of lies, yeah. Star Village doesn't even have a hundred ninja, more like seventy or eighty."

I was relieved. So I wasn't responsible for over a hundred deaths. There certainly hadn't been even eighty ninja in that mansion, probably no more than sixty-five. Itachi said we would camp for the night in the clearing we were in, so I put down my bag and went to sleep, grateful for even this small amount of rest.

* * *

I was roughly shaken awake by Kisame. It was morning again, but the sun was just rising. Kisame picked me up from the ground and shook me up and down. "C'mon princess, wakey wakey."

I screeched awake with a "What the hell? Put me down, Seaweed Brain!"

Deidara, rubbing his face with a cloth nearby, began laughing again. "Seaweed Brain! Why didn't I think of that a year ago, yeah?"

Itachi, already set to go, spoke, again in a monotone. "Stop fooling around, all of you. We need to move fast, Leader expects us back by nightfall."

I rubbed my eyes tiredly. "Can't we just fly?"

Itachi looked up at me. "Miss Sorano, Kisame and I are unable to fly. While Deidara can create a construct that would allow us to, it takes up valuable time."

I nodded sadly. "In that case, how long will it take to reach wherever we are headed?"

Deidara piped up, tying half his hair into what appeared to be a ponytail on a stick. "If we run constantly, four hours to Rain max, yeah."

"We're going to Rain?" Granted, I had never been out of Bear Country before now, but I had never expected I'd come as far northeast as Rain Country.

Kisame nodded. "Yeah, little bit more moisture in the air over there. Rainin' all the time in that place."

Itachi motioned for everyone to begin moving, and we took off, heading due east. I wasn't exactly pleased with the prospect of a country under a constant cover of rain, but judging by the large hats being produced from underneath the men's cloaks, they were well prepared. Deidara noticed my look of consternation and laughed. "Hey, Fishface, you got another hat somewhere? Looks like Miss Sorano here doesn't have one."

Kisame merely grunted, taking out a fourth large straw hat, white cloth streamers hanging from the sides, as well as pair of bells on two strings. "Y'know, I'd quit callin' me 'Fishface' if I was you, kid."

As Kisame handed me the hat, Deidara smirked. "If you were me, I'd be ugly,yeah."

The two began another round of bickering, and I sighed and kept running to the inevitable doom of the Land of Rain.

* * *

As we progressed further into Rain, Kisame became more relaxed the more moist the air around us got. When the first raindrop fell from the sky, he audibly sighed. I guessed that Kisame, being from Mist, was more comfortable with some form of water around him. He even appeared to be a shark, so having water around him may just have been instinct of some kind. As we tromped through puddles and mud, ruining my stolen black boots, I shivered and wished I had a nice, warm cloak like Deidara, Kisame and Itachi did.

A thunderclap sounded in the distance, lightning flashing seconds earlier. As the rain began to pour down in earnest, my soaked-through body began shutting down. I stopped dead. I was so cold. I had never before felt this kind of bone-deep cold. I was also sort of confused. Deidara, who I had watched out of the corner of my 'eye', was moving his fingers in different patterns. I was a little leery of this, since I still wasn't sure that any of these men were entirely sane. So, I asked him, "What are you doing, Deidara?"

He looked up at me and grinned in a way that seemed like a cross between a smile and a smirk. "Composing a symphony."

"A...Symphony?"

"Sure. I like music. It changes every time it's played, yeah. That makes it art, and I love art. I'm still a little confused, I need a good theme, so I'm just fooling with different sounds in my head. I just move my fingers as if I was playing a piano, yeah. It's not like I have one with me, so I gotta imagine it."

Itachi broke in then. "We're here. Miss Sorano, welcome," he turned, gesturing ahead, "to Amegakure."

I was greeted by a city of metal and lights, covered in a constant shimmer of rain. One twisted tower rose above the others, shaped as a demon. Smoke curled from a pipe-shaped metal chimney, the monster's long tongue curling out of its mouth, sharp teeth ringing the top and bottom. It was toward this that Itachi was leading us. Deidara yelled to me, "I hope Leader likes you, yeah! I need a new partner!"

I mulled that remark over as we leapt to the creature's tongue, entering through the vast mouth. I was entering the headquarters of the Akatsuki.

* * *

The back of the mouth had a door in it, also made of metal. Itachi opened this door, gesturing to me to go through. I went in, my senses prickling into overtime. It was warm in the building, something I was grateful for. As I passed further inside, I saw that it was actually quite opulent. It had bright lamps attached to the walls, and, upon closer inspection, they weren't candles, but electric lightbulbs. The walls were covered in a crimson paper, and I followed Itachi down the hall we were in, watching. Occasionally the walls were punctuated by black doors, each with a different seal in the center. A short way into the structure, Deidara and Kisame peeled off into separate rooms, Deidara to the left, Kisame to the right. Deidara entered a room with a seal that read "Blue". Kisame walked into a room with the symbol "South". I noticed that each held up a hand to the seal, a ring on each man's hand glowing for a second before the door opened. My prickling senses told me that someone lived in each of the rooms.

One was empty, but held traces of Itachi's chakra signature. I assumed that was his room. At the end of the hall, there was another door with a seal. This one read "Void", which seemed appropriate. I could feel nothing in that room. There wasn't even the slightest trace of chakra in it. I guessed that it had been empty for many years, that or whatever lived there wasn't actually alive. The final door had no seal, and it was also black. Itachi knocked on it, stepping back with a respectful, "Leader, I have returned with Hoshiko Sorano."

The door swung open on oiled hinges, making not a sound. Itachi turned to me. "Go in. Don't be afraid."

Easier said than done, of course. Yogensha intervened, keeping my fear in check for me. I entered the room with merely a sense of apprehension. Yogensha remained silent, as she had ever since Itachi, Kisame and Deidara had come within ten feet of me. The room was just as lavishly furnished in a recurring theme of black and crimson as the hall I had seen before. At an ebony desk, a man sat. His hair was spiky and orange, his eyes gray. He was covered in piercings, in his nose, his lips, and his ears. A sense of authority exuded from him, which meant that this was undeniably the man called Leader. I walked about halfway to the desk, then halted. I wasn't sure what to do, for it was clear that this man was undeniably powerful. His gray eyes bore through mine, strange rings around them, in the whites themselves, giving a sense of extreme danger. He spoke to me when I halted. "You are Hoshiko Sorano?"

I gulped. "Ah, yes, sir."

He frowned. "It is Leader, not sir. I do not tolerate mockery."

I frowned, too. "Well, Leader, I was not aware which title you preferred, thus I was not mocking you."

To my surprise, he tipped his head head back and grinned. "Oh, I see. You can't be much older than Deidara, can you? Hm. One so young shouldn't be here."

I blinked quizzically. "Then, Leader, why am I here?"

He looked at me again with those disconcerting gray eyes. "Ah, that...That's a very good question. I want to finish this quickly, Hoshiko. What are your most unusual abilities? Merely having star-enhanced chakra cannot account for the destruction I saw at the Star Village."

"You went there?" I was shocked.

"Yes, just when you appeared in the bingo books of Itachi, Deidara and a few of our other members."

I settled down. "Okay, well. To start, I, uh, well. I should probably just show you."

I took out a small scroll from the pouch I wore. Whipping it open, I splashed five drops of paint in a particular pattern, flipped the brush back and made a one-handed sign, just my index and middle fingers not bent. "Ki!"

A bear rose out of the scroll, glistening in the dim light. A full-sized grizzly, each claw able to gut the average wild boar. It roared, and Leader, as I supposed I should call him, jumped out of his chair into a guard position against the wall. I released the jutsu, the drops of paint returning to my handcrafted bottle. Leader straightened up. "What on earth does that thing do! That is, aside from scaring me out of my wits?"

I laughed. "Well, I can't just create bears. I do everything from the tiniest mouse or fly to the largest creature imaginable. I could even do a dragon, though that would take time. I can use these as weapons, explosives, or spies. They have almost no limitations. I am also able to manipulate my chakra in such a way that allows me to fly."

He sat back down. "Anything else? For instance, your eyes."

I hesitated. "Well, ah...I'm blind."

He blinked, confused. "Blind?"

"Yes. I have been sightless since birth, but have created a jutsu since then that allows me to see everything. I see the normal spectrum of colors, shapes, and I have depth perception. I can also twist this vision to see lies, truth, poisons or through invisibility. Along with this power, something I discovered before I learnt this jutsu." I hestitated again. I wouldn't say a word about Yogensha, because something told me that would be a very bad idea. "I can see the future, at least occasionally."

He sat up. "The...Future? How?"

"I don't know myself, Leader. It is sudden and unpredictable. I saw, for instance, Deidara. Just his face. I knew that I would never meet him unless I left the village, though I was reluctant until the so-called Hoshikage spurred me into action."

Leader sat straighter, if that was possible. "I see. You are a very good addition to Akatsuki. Put this on, if you please."

I took the ring he handed me. _Void._ I looked at him. "Which finger does it go on?"

He looked up at me again. "Try your left little finger."

I placed it on the finger mentioned. It tightened to a more comfortable fit. Then, my eyes widened as my fingernails turned black. I touched one cautiously. If I hadn't seen the color creep into them myself, I would have assumed it was nail polish.

Leader spoke again. "This ring will give you access to the room with the same symbol. That is your room. It should have anything you need in it. The ring also allows you to participate in our organizations' telepathic jutsu. Your partner will tell you all else you need to know."

I turned to leave. From behind, Leader spoke for another moment. "Oh, and Hoshiko? Your partner is Deidara."

* * *

I half-stumbled out of the room, my mind reeling. I was in Akatsuki. I was part of a dangerous batch of hardened criminals. I looked up from the wood floor, stained dark, and gasped. The hall wasn't the same. Instead, though the doors were in similar places, there was now a flight of stairs leading up and one leading down. I looked down the lower flight, and the smell of barbecue drifted to my nose as soft chatter reached my ears. I heard the clink of glass, the crash of a dropped dish, and a surprisingly loud yell of "BLOODY HELL!"

My curiosity piqued, I silently moved down the stairs. Yogensha helped me mask my chakra as I descended with little more noise than a moth's wings. I poked my face carefully around the doorframe. The entire room froze as each inhabitant spotted me. There was Deidara, seated cross-legged on the floor, a rib halfway to his open mouth. Itachi, frozen in the act of placing a cloth-covered basket on a large wood table. Kisame, standing by an open black fridge, his hand reaching for a beer. Then, people I didn't recognize. The most bizarre person I had ever seen appeared to be sticking out of the wall. His ragged, short hair was bright green, and he had a pair of what looked like Venus Fly-trap jaws attached to his shoulders. Half his body was stark white, the other coal black, and divided exactly down the middle. His yellow, pupil-less eyes stared at me, his open mouth revealing sharp teeth and what looked like a scrap of raw meat.

Another man, whose body appeared to be bolted together, had black hair and a dramatically spiraling orange mask with one hole over his right eye. He was holding a plate of ribs and what looked like deviled egg potato salad, clearly heading to the stairs. There was two last men. One was a man with brown, straight hair and what appeared to be stitches snaking over his body and face, strange eyes with green pupils and red scleras. And I though mine were weird. He was bending to pick up a dropped plate, about three fork-sized shards of which were stuck in the leg of a man lying on the ground. His magenta eyes locked on mine, he pulled a comb out of his pocket and slicked his disarranged silver hair back. At this, a woman at a sink moved. She was beautiful, gray eyed with striking sapphire hair, which had a flower that appeared to be paper in it. A small lip piercing caught the light as she spoke to me in a voice of bells. "Are you the new girl Deidara and Kisame have been going on about?"

I stepped into the room. Deidara closed his mouth and Itachi placed the basket on the table. Kisame grabbed two beers, throwing one at Itachi, who caught it and placed it on the floor near the silver-haired man. I walked up to the woman and nodded once. "Yes, I am. My name is Hoshiko Sorano. You?"

She smiled kindly. "I'm Konan. You already know Kisame, Deidara and Itachi, correct?"

"Yes."

Konan glared at the assembled men. "And what are you idiots staring at? That food is getting cold and I won't warm it up." Everyone moved back to their previously postponed tasks. As Deidara tore a large bite off his rib, she continued speaking. "Well, I'm glad there's finally another kunoichi in Akatsuki. It's about time, if you ask me. Why don't I introduce you, then you can eat. You must be starving."

Without further ado, she began taking about the other people in the room. "The one in the wall is Zetsu. Be careful around him, he's a cannibal. Tobi is in the orange mask. He's Zetsu's partner, but don't let him start talking to you about transport. He'll talk your leg off." The aforementioned shinobi walked past us up the stairs, making it look like more of a bouncing skip.

Konan continued by insulting the brown-haired man. "Stitches the Scarecrow over there is actually named Kakuzu. His temper gets away from him pretty easily, which is why he's partnered with the silver-haired idiot on the floor pulling ceramic out of his leg. That's Hidan, an immortal. Don't ask. Everyone," she said, "This is Hoshiko. She's Deidara's new partner and I expect all of you", She sounded a lot like a difficult sensei my brother had, "To treat her nicely. If you don't, well, you all know the consequence, right?"

The men nodded. I decided I liked Konan. She spoke again, gesturing to the table. "It's leftover night, so help yourself to whatever you want. It looks like Itachi made us some bread, so get some before Hidan or Kisame eats it all." As I registered each thing she had said, she moved away to grab a plate, then fill it with chicken, bread and green salad. Kisame gulped his beer as Hidan pulled the last shard of plate out of his arm, then opened the other beer.

I sat near Deidara after I took some bread, chicken and potato salad, cautiously noting that none of the people in the room, with the exception of Konan and Zetsu, wore cloaks. Deidara was now shown to be wearing a black net-and-cloth shirt, typical black pants that were tucked into the white stirrup-things everyone I had seen besides Konan and Tobi (and Zetsu, as I couldn't see his feet) wearing over their sandals and had two large, heavy-looking pouches or bags attached to his heavy-duty belt. Deidara saw me and grinned. "Hey, Hoshiko! We got damn lucky, didn't we, yeah? Guess your abilities must mesh well with mine."

I grinned back. "Yeah, I know. When do we start?"

"I'm gonna say tomorrow. Hey, Hidan!" called Deidara, his head turning towards the silver-haired man. "When do you think you're gonna leave, yeah? I'm starting to bleed from my ears."

Hidan had just taken a large swallow of beer, so he almost choked in his haste to answer. However, when he did, I wished he hadn't. He took a breath, than spoke(more like yelled at the top of his lungs) in a fairly moderate tenor voice. "What the fuck is wrong with you, stupid asshole? I will fucking stay here as long as I fucking want to, you asswipe son of a bitch."

I widened my eyes. Deidara turned red, turning back to me. "Oops. C'mon, let's go upstairs so you can eat in peace, yeah."

With that, I followed him as he marched up the stairs. At the landing, he turned to me and grinned. "Sorry. Hidan takes it upon himself to drive everyone up the wall when he's here. I hate it when I'm here same time as him."

I noticed idly that Deidara spoke in an extremely cultured manner, almost like a noble's child, but replied without a second thought. "I can see that. So, we're partners?"

"Yeah. Speaking of which, I want to clear something up right here and now. What's your opinion of what makes true art, yeah?"

"True art?"

"Uh-huh. My last partner had some convoluted idea that art was something wonderful left for the future. Stupid in my opinion, yeah."

"Well..." I thought for a moment.

"I think that art can't really be _art_ unless it has a spark."

"A spark?"

"A spark of life, or the ability to change. Like, say, an explosion is true art because it lasts for a short time. Music, like you said earlier, " I said as I thought back to the trip to Rain, "Is true art because it changes every time it's played, in interpretation, dynamics, things like that. In other words, I believe that if something is alive and changing, it's art."

Deidara looked at me with a satisfied smirk on his face. "Wow. I really like you now. Your ideas of art are almost the same as mine. Mine is 'Art is an Explosion'! Or, well," He smiled uncertainly. He scratched his cheek. "Well, that art only lasts a single moment. Sort of like yours if you think about it, yeah."

I smiled, pleased that he had decided I was an ally. He continued up the stairs, back into the hall. As I crested the staircase, Deidara snatched my plate from my hands. When I opened my mouth to protest, he grinned in his smug way, saying, "Open your room door, yeah. I'll carry your plate in and help you get settled. What's your ring say?"

I looked at it to remind myself. "Void."

"Void, huh? Sounds like you've gotten yourself the abandoned room."

"Abandoned?"

"Nothing to worry about, yeah. It's been lived in before, years ago. I wasn't here yet, I think I was probably like eight."

Deidara told me what I needed to do to open the door. I held my ring up to it, and the mark, as well as my ring, glowed. The door swung silently open, letting out a blast of surprisingly warm air. As soon as it opened, I entered, Deidara behind me. The room was dark, but, as I shifted my sight, Deidara flicked a light switch on a wall, causing me to hastily shift my vision back to normal. The room was white-walled, with a high ceiling. There were actually several rooms, making it more like an apartment than a bedroom. Deidara placed my food down on a stone counter nearby, turning to me with a grin and a "Pretty cushy, huh?"

I nodded, then whipped a white cloth off what turned out to be a fancy, plush armchair. Deidara looked at me again, then uncovered another, identical chair. He sat, motioning that I should do the same. He leaned forward, unbuckled his thick utility belt, and let his pouches drop to the floor with a loud thump. He steepled his fingers, his face taking on a totally serious look. He gravely narrowed his eyes.

"Now. Let me tell you all about Akatsuki."

* * *

**A/N: Not bad,yeah! I am happy with where this story is going right now, and am changing my posting style so that chapters are complete before I post them. This was getting on people's nerves, so while you may be waiting longer for chapters, they will be FINISHED when they show up. Also, I have started a story called _Will of Fire, _and it is a Final Fantasy VII (7) story for anybody who's interested. Thanks for reading, catch ya later!**


End file.
